Case Study: General Mills UK
Case Study 1
The Hillingdon Book of the Year programme is a literacy initiative involving
local school children from the 'early years' to secondary school age. General
Mills took over responsibility of the programme and sole sponsorship after
changes
in central Government funding meant that the scheme was due to close.
General Mills saw that the scheme had a huge potential for the local Hillingdon
community and felt it would be a tragedy for the children if the scheme was to
close. The company and the Borough Library Services also realised that it could
be developed and extended to cover a wider range of ages amongst school children
to provide even more benefits to the community.
The Programme involves children reading 21 newly-published books, and provides
them support to explore, discuss and vote for their favourite books. This has
been developed for the Early Years age group to include illustrations to assist
the children's participation in discussions about the books.
40 local schools are currently involved in the programme, and since the scheme
has been developed there has been an upturn in literacy performance statistics
in the schools which are involved.
Highly Commended in 2007 Community Partnership Awards: Education Category
top
Case Study 2
In the development of its overall charitable / community strategy, General Mills
researched the needs of its local community via a number of local institutions
and bodies. The company's research strongly indicated that there was a real need
for mentors within its local borough of Hillingdon – the result was the
development of General Mills' Mentoring Scheme.
The Mentoring Scheme takes place during work hours and the employees involved
are fully supported to take any time out of the office that is required in this
important project.
A team of 16 mentors, including members of the company's Executive team attend
twice monthly mentoring sessions with groups of 14/15 year old students at the
local secondary school. The aim of the project is to boost student achievement
levels and increase feelings of self esteem, whilst giving students a forum for
impartial guidance and advice outside of that which they may find in the home or
school environment.
This initiative is still running.
Gold Award Winner (SME) of 2006 Community Partnership Awards: Education Category
top
More Information
FDF has published a booklet called Working in the Community: the food industry in action
(pdf, 1.2Mb) . This publication features a range of company case studies and
Community
Partnership Award winners demonstrating how our members are forging
links
with
their local communities and consumers.
Last reviewed: 16 May 2008